The Internet is easier to log on to. You no longer see that pale
\nfaced record store patron wiping his or her sweaty palms. Yes, for
\nsome music geeks out there, October 3 was a special day. For some,
\nmyself partially, the questions were going to get answered about
\none of the most anticipated follow-up albums in the last ten years.
\nAnd no, it wasn’t Green Day’s album that people were waiting
\nfor.<\/p>\n
Radiohead’s
\nKid A<\/i> has arrived and some Radiohead fans are already
\ndiscarding the album as an indulgent experiment and pining away
\nuntil the “more traditional, guitar-oriented” Radiohead album
\narrives next year. However, most Radiohead fans know this is the
\nsame way a lot of fans felt when
\nOK Computer<\/i> first came out.<\/p>\n
To put rumors aside,
\nKid A<\/i> isn’t unlistenable. It is not an angry lash-out to
\nalienate fans that were new patrons to the
\nOK Computer<\/i> corral. Come to think of it, the band still only
\nsold less than two million copies in the U.S. That is an awesome
\nfeat, but in the diamond-obsessed platinum market out there, those
\nthat picked up
\nOK Computer<\/i> and loved it will likely take a risk with
\nKid A<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Unlike
\nOK Computer<\/i> and
\nThe Bends<\/i>,
\nKid A<\/i> is missing what defined Radiohead: squalling guitars
\nof Johnny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien and the full impact of Thom
\nYorke’s voice. Both musical elements are intact, but require much
\ncloser attention. The first two songs don’t even qualify for
\ntraditional songs. You hear blurbs, zips and what sounds like a
\ntripped-out Kermit moaning on the title track. It is only during
\nthe third song that the guitars really kick in. But then they
\ndisappear just as quickly as they formed.<\/p>\n
Don’t worry though,
\nKid A<\/i> has enough to linger with listeners after the first
\nspin. The beautiful, ambient sonics of the title track, the
\ncalmness of “Morning Bell,” odd as it may seem, will lock in your
\nhead just like a Backstreet rhythm. If you’re a rocker, the fuzzy
\nguitar riff of “The National Anthem” will merit repeated listens.
\nAnd if you’re a melodic fan, “Optimistic” may be one of the most
\npretty songs the band has ever recorded.<\/p>\n
Much has already been analyzed by the lyrical content of
\nKid A<\/i> already. “Yesterday I wound up sucking on a lemon” is
\nthe most quoted line so far in
\nKid A<\/i>. Could that be because that’s one of the most
\ndecipherable lines in the album? Thom Yorke’s voice is so
\ndistinctive that much of the lyrical content is going to be
\nover-analyzed and scrutinized. But fans and critics who gripe that
\nKid A<\/i> is too difficult are forgetting how long it took for
\nThe Bends<\/i> and
\nOK Computer<\/i> to settle in.<\/p>\n
\nKid A<\/i> is a difficult album to listen to, thank god. In an
\never-more increasing environment where albums are becoming more and
\nmore marketing products than musical statements, Radiohead has put
\nout an album that makes it feel good to be a music lover again.
\nDrummer Phil Selway and bassist Colin Greenwood provide much-needed
\nrhythmic stopping points during “The National Anthem” and “In
\nLimbo.” In fact, the 2\/3 of
\nKid A<\/i> could qualify as a trippy buildup to “Idioteque,”
\n“Morning Bell” and “Motion Picture Soundtrack.”<\/p>\n
If you let it,
\nKid A<\/i> will find a way into your subconscious and keep you
\nreturning. As a result, this difficult album will fit nicely in
\nbetween
\nOK Computer<\/i> and the next Radiohead masterpiece. Word of
\nadvice however: stake your claims to
\nKid A<\/i> now. Seven years down the road, you will have bragging
\nrights next time you go into a record store and spout off, “I
\nalways thought
\nKid A<\/i> was their best album.” Trust me, like
\nPaul’s Boutique<\/i>, great albums are sometimes mistook for
\ncast-off side projects designed to alienate a fan base that never
\nneeded alienated to begin with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5849],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36801","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-radiohead","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36801"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36801"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}